TWENTY-THIRD TALK 465

course, but did not make the best use of it. Brown is
at present in a monastery somewhere in Italy, and, I
believe, has come to the conclusion that the Christ is
the only true Master. So that you see that the
opportunity of seeing a Master even physically does
not necessarily convey lasting conviction. It is all
very curious; I do not understand it. One would
expect that a man whose karma was good enough to
give such an opportunity as that would be equal to
taking it. But Brown was not, and it is not the only
case. Others who have come very near have yet
somehow fallen away. There must, of course, always
be a reason for it. It is an improper thing to try to
pry into. I do not know ; at any rate those are the
facts of the case?.

Generally speaking, we should give full trust to any
spiritual teacher whom we accept, even though such
a teacher be below the level of a Master. Take the
case of Madame Blavatsky. She gave occasional
crumbs of knowledge to her people, but she applied
pretty rigorous tests to them all the time. Perhaps
she was right there, because those who passed those
rigorous tests mostly stuck to her. We were unconven-
tional. She cured us of conventionality, but there
were searchings of heart among Madame Blavatsky's
followers. Many people said she did this and that,
which a great spiritual teacher ought not to do. For
myself, my feelings were always this: Madame
Blavatsky has this occult knowledge, and I am going
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